MCAA Government Affairs Update for the Week of January 26, 2026: The Latest Developments Impacting Our Industry

As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting your livelihood and setting the stage for a bright future, MCAA has secured the services of Longbow Public Policy Group to advise our MCAA Government Affairs Committee (GAC). GAC Chair, Jim Gaffney will be passing along information relative to our industry on a regular basis.

On Monday, January 26, 2026 MCAA Lobbying Firm, Longbow Public Policy Group provided the following information:

Trump Administration

• Marking one year since President Trump returned to office, last week the White House shared a statement touting 365 policy “wins” and the Department of Energy released fact sheets outlining the Administration’s “energy dominance agenda.” DOE highlighted record domestic oil and natural gas production, steps to accelerate nuclear power deployment, and efforts to strengthen domestic fuel supply chains as central to maintaining U.S. energy security and economic competitiveness. That posture was reinforced on the global stage last week when Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, argued that the world needs to more than double oil production and warned that restrictive climate policies—particularly EU methane reporting requirements and “California-style” environmental regulations—risk undermining energy affordability, reliability, and U.S. exports. Secretary Wright emphasized that oil and gas will remain essential for decades and positioned U.S. production as a stabilizing force amid rising global energy demand.

• The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued an advisory bulletin in response to the March 2023 natural gas pipeline explosion in West Reading, Pennsylvania that killed seven people and injured ten others. The advisory follows National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) findings that the incident involved plastic Aldyl A service tees with Delrin inserts and reflects NTSB recommendations that PHMSA strengthen guidance under the Distribution Integrity Management Program (DIMP). In the bulletin, PHMSA urges natural gas distribution operators to inventory plastic pipe and components exposed to elevated temperatures, evaluate risks of degradation and failure, and implement mitigation measures—including leak management, remediation, or replacement—where necessary. PHMSA also advises operators to ensure that new or replacement plastic pipelines are installed with adequate clearance or insulation from heat sources to prevent premature degradation and improve overall pipeline safety.

• Last Thursday, the Trump Administration ordered a review of federal funding to 14 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C., escalating its campaign to pressure jurisdictions that oppose or fail to assist with federal immigration enforcement efforts. A memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget directs nearly all federal agencies to inventory funding provided to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. MCAA’s advocacy team is closely watching what comes out of this review and if it could lead to freezing some states’ allotments under federally funded programs that create work for MCAA members. Pursuant to the OMB directive, departments and agencies are busy inventorying both current and anticipated fiscal year 2026 obligations to the targeted states. We are cautioning against any disruption of federal funds for EPA Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans, EPA Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects, certain DOT formula and discretionary grants, and DOE grid and energy infrastructure funding critical to data centers.

• Last week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said that this week President Trump will begin regular trips across the country to rally voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. His first stop will be Iowa, where he will deliver a speech focused on the economy and energy, as the White House moves to highlight the President’s work on domestic issues and affordability. New polling out this week shows some public dissatisfaction a year into the President’s second term. The White House says some media outlets are only emphasizing negative polling data about the President and his policies and are questioning the integrity of some of the negative polling. Last Thursday, the President threatened to sue the New York Times over a poll it released with Sienna College indicating that the coalition that got him elected in 2024 is fraying.

• As part of the White House’s increasing focus on housing affordability issues ahead of the November midterms, last week as President Trump floated the idea of allowing ordinary homeowners to take an annual depreciation deduction on their personal residences to recover certain property costs over a set period of time, noting that when a “corporation buys a house, they get depreciation.” This followed President Trump signing an executive order last Tuesday barring “institutional investors” from owning “single family homes.” Under the order, the Treasury Department has 30 days to develop “definitions of ‘large institutional investor’ and ‘single-family home.’” Within 60 days, the Agriculture Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the General Services Administration, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency are required to issue guidance ensuring that they are not “providing for, approving, insuring, guaranteeing, securitizing, or facilitating the acquisition” of single family homes by large institutional investors. This guidance must include “exceptions for build-to-rent properties that are planned, permitted, financed, and constructed as rental communities, and such other appropriate, narrowly tailored exceptions as the applicable agency may determine appropriate to further the policies of [the] Administration.” The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are directed to review acquisitions by large institutional investors for anti-competitive practices and prioritize enforcement against such practices by institutional investors in the single-family home rental market. A fact sheet on the order is available here.

• MCAA continues to closely monitor tariff developments impacting MCAA members, including the pending Supreme Court decision on the scope of the President’s tariff authorities. The U.S. Supreme Court still has not issued a decision in the closely watched case over President Trump’s tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that was used to implement his “Liberation Day” tariffs. With the justices heading into a four-week recess, the next likely decision day is February 20^th. This leaves MCAA and other groups interested in the tariff policy navigating uncertainty over the administration’s tariff powers and plans.

• The MCAA policy team also continues to monitor implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), including the “No Tax on Overtime” provision of the law that we discussed at the Industry Funds Conference last month. Last Friday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a new Fact Sheet with questions and answers about this deduction. Only two of the questions and answers in the fact sheet cover information that is not in the MCAA policy team’s recently-posted explanation of the deduction. First, question #2 addresses how to ascertain if an employee is exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), such that they are ineligible for the deduction. Second, question #7 provides guidance to aid employees who are eligible for the deduction in determining the amount of their deduction for qualified overtime compensation.

Congress

• As Congress races to avoid a partial government shutdown this Friday, January 30th, the House last Thursday voted 341–88 to pass a minibus appropriations package that includes the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Labor-HHS-Education and Transportation-HUD spending bills. The Labor-HHS-Education bill cuts $5 million from the National Labor Relations Board, marking the agency’s first funding reduction in more than a decade. The bill provides $13.7 billion for the Department of Labor, an increase of $65 million over FY 2025 and roughly $4 billion above the President’s request. It includes: (1) level funding for the Wage and Hour Division for enforcement activities; (2) a $3 million funding cut for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; (3) level funding for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, which oversees ERISA-governed retirement and health plans; (4) $285 million for Registered Apprenticeships; (5) $2.9 billion for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act formula grants; and (6) $1.45 billion for Career and Technical Education grants. Notably, the bill continues funding for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs ($100 million) and the Women’s Bureau ($23 million), both of which the Trump Administration proposed eliminating. The measure also includes bipartisan health provisions targeting pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by expanding transparency requirements and mandating the pass-through of drug savings to health plans. Separately, the Transportation-HUD bill provides funding for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), including $214.8 million for pipeline safety programs. This includes dedicated funding for state one-call grants, LNG safety oversight, underground natural gas storage safety, emergency preparedness grants, and pipeline safety information grants for communities. The bill also: (1) prohibits the Department of Transportation from withdrawing, terminating, or rescinding previously approved funding without notifying House and Senate appropriators within three days; (2) provides $35 million for small shipyards; and (3) appropriates $103.3 million for port infrastructure accounts at the Maritime Administration. The Senate is expected to consider the package when it returns to session this week.

• As Congress acknowledges the growing backlash to the rapid expansion of data centers that the MCAA advocacy team is confronting as its advocates for permitting reform, an investigation launched by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) into how much data centers are driving up Americans’ electric bills has data center developers playing defense. Last Thursday, the Senators announced that the nation’s largest data center developers—including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Equinix, CoreWeave, and Digital Realty—have made new commitments to “pay their fair share” of electricity and grid infrastructure costs. In written responses, Google said it is “paying for 100 percent of the electricity” it uses and ensuring that “Google, not local residents, pays for any new grid infrastructure required for our growth.” Equinix emphasized that large energy users “pay a premium for what they’re utilizing so that we don’t impact small ratepayers,” often through long-term, take-or-pay utility agreements designed to insulate other customers from financial risk. At the same time, the companies stressed that many power supply agreements remain confidential, with Google noting that pricing terms are “for the most part confidential” despite being subject to regulatory review. The Democratic Senators feel this limits public transparency. Sen. Van Hollen said he is not satisfied with the companies’ responses and plans to press forward with legislation that would require data centers to fully cover the cost of the electricity they consume, signaling that further scrutiny could shape the pace and structure of future data center development.

• The importance of the MCAA’s advocacy on permitting reform to the construction of AI data centers, related power generation, and other infrastructure was highlighted last week in new construction and financing data showing that spending on data center construction is projected to rise by roughly 23% in 2026. Data centers are expected to account for more than 6% of all nonresidential construction spending in 2026, up from about 2% in 2023. Much of this growth is concentrated in the states served by grid operator PJM Interconnection, where large load demand from data centers is outpacing the ability to bring new generation and transmission online using current permitting processes. PJM has warned that existing infrastructure cannot support projected load growth and has proposed the “immediate initiation” of backstop reliability measures, including faster—but more restrictive—data center interconnections, enhanced demand forecasting requirements, and new rules requiring large power users to either bring their own generation online or accept early curtailment during periods of system stress. PJM acknowledges these steps are not a long-term solution, but rather a stopgap driven by delays in permitting and building new generation and transmission capacity. The Trump Energy Department is trying to provide loans and other funding for this generation and transmission capacity. For example, last Thursday, the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) said that its federal loan authority is being refocused to support AI-driven load growth and grid reliability. EDF plans to deploy its $289 billion loan authority to back energy and manufacturing projects that “meaningfully contribute to U.S. energy security, grid reliability, and lowering costs,” explicitly tying federal financing decisions to maintaining U.S. leadership in emerging AI technologies. To align with that goal, EDF announced it is restructuring, revising, or eliminating more than $83 billion in Biden-era loans and conditional commitments, de-obligating nearly $30 billion, and redirecting the funding toward dispatchable generation, grid and transmission capacity, and domestic manufacturing. EDF said it will prioritize financing for nuclear, natural gas, geothermal, grid and transmission, and manufacturing projects, while eliminating roughly $9.5 billion in prior wind and solar commitments and redirecting that funding toward other power sources. Taken together, the Administration’s effort to redirect federal loan authority toward AI-supporting energy infrastructure and PJM’s move toward curtailment and self-supply requirements underscore why the MCAA’s advocacy on permitting reform has become increasingly important.

• MCAA health plan trustees may be interested in last Thursday’s contentious hearing at which health insurance executives faced sharp, bipartisan criticism from the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee over soaring premiums, executive compensation, and opaque pricing practices. Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) argued that “Obamacare coverage is not translating to patient or taxpayer affordability,” while Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) highlighted Congressional Budget Office projections of premium increases between 4–8% after the subsidies expired at the end of last year as insurers in many markets sought rate hikes of 30–50% in 2026. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) pressed CVS Health CEO David Joyner on executive compensation, and Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA) warned that stock-based compensation is prompting insurers to prioritize shareholders over patients. Lawmakers also focused on consolidation and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices, with Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) criticizing ACA medical loss ratio rules for creating “perverse incentives,” and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) questioning whether PBM rebates are passed through to patients. Insurers countered that premiums are a “symptom, not a cause” of rising healthcare costs, citing higher hospital, physician, and drug prices, with UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley pledging to return any profits from ACA marketplace plans in 2026. The testimony came amid mounting political pressure from President Trump, who has publicly attacked insurers and called for price cuts, setting the stage for further scrutiny.

• Relatedly, as Congress continues to debate reforms to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), last Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee released an interim staff report stemming from its 2024 investigation into whether major PBMs use their market power to choke off new competition. The report concludes that CVS Health’s PBM—CVS Caremark—may have engaged in exclusionary conduct that raises serious antitrust concerns. The report focuses on CVS’s response to “hub” pharmacy companies—digital platforms (e.g., BlinkRx and others) that partner with independent pharmacies to provide services like real-time price checks, benefit verification, and streamlined prescription fulfillment—arguing that CVS viewed these hubs as a disruptive threat and responded by pressuring independent pharmacies to sever ties rather than competing on the merits. According to internal documents reviewed by the Committee, CVS allegedly: (1) monitored independent pharmacies for hub-related activity; (2) rewrote its provider manual to restrict or deter hub relationships; (3) used the rule changes as a pretext to launch audits; and (4) issued cease-and-desist letters threatening network termination—a powerful tool given CVS Caremark’s broad pharmacy network reach and large PBM market share. The Committee report says that CVS publicly justified its actions as anti-fraud measures driven by plan sponsor concerns, but did not produce evidence tying legitimate hub relationships to fraud and later quietly backtracked, sending letters to some pharmacies allowing them to work with at least one hub (BlinkRx) and stating that such relationships would not be treated as a basis for audit findings or noncompliance. The report argues CVS’s conduct may fit established theories of unlawful monopoly maintenance under the Sherman Act and warrants the Committee pursuing legislative reforms aimed at curbing emerging PBM practices that suppress innovation and limit pharmacy and patient choice. MCAA will continue engaging to ensure any such proposals do not undermine ERISA preemption.

• As the long-running controversy over the Trump Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files continues to consume attention on Capitol Hill and distract from other priorities, last Wednesday the House Oversight Committee advanced contempt resolutions against former President Bill Clinton by a strong bipartisan vote of 34-8 and against former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton by a much narrower vote of 28-15. On a party-line vote, the Committee rejected a Democratic-sponsored amendment to hold Attorney General Bondi in contempt for failing to release the Epstein files in DOJ’s possession. If the contempt resolutions against the Clintons pass the House, the Trump Justice Department will decide whether to pursue criminal charges. The contempt resolutions came as a federal judge declined a request from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Justice Department’s release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, while acknowledging “legitimate concerns” about whether the department is complying with a recently enacted disclosure law. The judge said his role in the criminal case involving Ghislaine Maxwell does not give him authority to supervise the Justice Department’s disclosures but noted his ruling does not prevent lawmakers from suing.

• In a preview of the oversight agenda Democrats might pursue if they capture a majority in the House or Senate in the coming midterm elections, House Oversight Committee Democrats released an interim staff analysis accusing President Trump and the Trump family of turning cryptocurrency ventures into a “digital kickback” system—using opaque token sales, stablecoins, and a $TRUMP memecoin to let foreign interests and other actors funnel money to the family with limited public visibility—while potentially seeking favorable treatment, access, or pardons. Alongside the report, House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-CA) launched a “Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker” that currently lists $2.255 billion in “digital grift profits,” $8.862 billion in total “digital grift wealth,” and $436 million in profits attributed to foreign interests.

• There were several developments in races for the U.S. Senate last week. In Minnesota, former Sunday Night Football reporter Michele Tafoya entered the U.S. Senate Republican primary, immediately earning the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In Florida, State Rep. Angie Nixon (D) announced a Democratic U.S. Senate bid to challenge incumbent GOP Senator Ashley Moody. In Maine, the Senate Leadership Fund announced plans to spend $42 million on TV, radio, and digital ads, along with data and get-out-the-vote activities to support Sen. Susan Collins’s (R-ME) re-election bid. In Louisiana, Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) launched a Republican primary bid against incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) after she received a public endorsement from President Trump, setting up a potentially bruising Republican primary in Louisiana. In Kentucky, billionaire Elon Musk donated $10 million to support Nate Morris, a pro-Trump outsider candidate running in the Republican Senate primary to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

• There were several developments in the battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives last week. In California, Gov. Newsom (D-CA) set an August 4 special election to fill the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s (R-CA) seat in California’s 1^st Congressional District, choosing the latest date allowed under state law and further complicating House Republicans’ narrow majority. Also in California, Republicans asked the Supreme Court to freeze and reconsider a lower court decision upholding California’s revised congressional map that would create additional Democratic House seats ahead of the November midterm elections. In Texas, the brother of recently pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who is the sheriff of Webb County Texas, was arrested for misusing public resources and corruption involving COVID-era cleaning contracts. In Maryland, a redistricting commission convened by Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) voted to recommend a new congressional map that would give Democrats all of Maryland’s 8 congressional seats, eliminating the state’s lone Republican seat held by House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD). In New York, a judge ruled that Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ (R-NY) 11^th Congressional District was unconstitutionally configured and ordered the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to create a new map ahead of the November midterms. In Virginia, Democrats scheduled a special election on April 21^st to vote on a redistricting ballot measure that would give lawmakers the ability to redraw the state’s congressional districts as the party looks to pick up seats ahead of the November midterms.

Around the Country

• MCAA members working on data centers, industrial facilities, and energy-intensive manufacturing projects should be aware that the Energy Department’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation last Thursday announced the award of $155 million for 16 projects to enhance DOE National Laboratories’ capabilities to develop cross-sector technologies for improving the efficiency and competitiveness of energy-intensive industries. Projects funded under this announcement include: (1) $20 million for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to accelerate the development and adoption of next-generation cement and concrete materials; (2) $15 million for the Sandia National Laboratories to advance a thermal energy storage testbed; (3) $10 million to National Energy Technology Laboratory to make testbed facilities for the commercial adoption of fuel-flexible combustion technologies; and (4) $6 million for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to form a data center cooling testbed network to bring cooling technologies to market. The full list of projects funded under this announcement are available here.

• MCAA members engaged in pipeline construction, repair, and integrity management work in Minnesota should be aware that last Thursday, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a Corrective Action Order to Northern Natural Gas Company following a rupture impacting approximately 1,000 feet of the 20-inch M440B pipeline near Willow River, Minnesota. The order requires Northern Natural Gas to: (1) maintain a mandatory 20% operating pressure reduction on the affected segment; (2) submit and obtain approval of a restart and repair plan before resuming service, including daylight restart procedures and coordination with local emergency responders; (3) complete mechanical, metallurgical, and soil testing of the failed pipe within 45 days; (4) conduct an independent, third-party root cause failure analysis within 90 days; (5) develop and implement a comprehensive remedial work plan addressing integrity risks along the full affected segment through additional inspections, testing, and repairs; and (6) submit quarterly progress reports and cost documentation to PHMSA until the order is formally closed.
  
• MCAA members in the Midwest should take note that, last Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached a project agreement with Atlantic Richfield, BP Products North America Inc., and the East Chicago Waterway Management District committing more than $200 million to clean up approximately 240,000 cubic yards of contaminated canal and river-bottom sediment in the Grand Calumet River Area of Concern in northwest Indiana. The Junction Reaches project includes sediment remediation and ecosystem restoration within the Grand Calumet River and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in East Chicago, while the Lake George Canal project will remediate sediment along a one-mile stretch of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in East Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. Both projects are expected to begin in late 2026.
  
• As the MCAA members continue advocating for federal and state policies supporting nuclear energy deployment and the expansion of the nuclear supply chain, members in New Jersey should be aware that last Wednesday, newly sworn-in Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) signed an executive order establishing a “Nuclear Power Task Force.” The order is intended to position the state to lead in the development of new nuclear power generation. The task force will evaluate pathways for deploying new nuclear capacity as a long-term, zero-carbon baseload resource, alongside accelerated solar and battery storage development, as the state looks to bring on large amounts of new generation to stabilize consumer electricity prices and improve grid reliability.